Main Street Dodge City receives 2013 National Main Street Accreditation

Thursday

May 2, 2013 at 6:00 AM

Main Street Dodge City has been designated as an accredited National Main Street Program for meeting the commercial district revitalization performance standards set by the National Main Street Center®, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Main Street Dodge City has been designated as an accredited National Main Street Program for meeting the commercial district revitalization performance standards set by the National Main Street Center®, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Each year, the National Main StreetCenter and its partners announce the list of accredited Main Street® programs that have built strong revitalization organizations and demonstrate their ability in using the Main Street Four Point Approach® methodology for strengthening their local economy and protecting their historic buildings.

“We congratulate this year’s nationally accredited Main Street programs for meeting our established performance standards,” says Valecia Crisafulli, acting director of the National Main Street Center. “Accredited Main Street programs are meeting the challenges of the downtown in the economy head on and are successfully using a focused, comprehensive revitalization strategy to keep their communities vibrant and sustainable.”

The organization’s performance is annually evaluated by Kansas Main Street,which works in partnership with the National Main Street Center to identifythe local programs that meet ten performance standards. These standards set the benchmarks for measuring an individual Main Street program’s application of the Main Street Four Point Approach® to commercial district revitalization. Evaluation criteria determines the communities that are building comprehensive and sustainable revitalization efforts and include standards such as developing a mission, fostering strong public-private partnerships, securing an operating budget, tracking economic progress and preserving historic buildings.

Since Dodge City was announced as a designated Kansas Main Street community in July 2010, the organization has tracked over $1 million in re-investment within the downtown district, including 22 net-new jobs and over 2,300 volunteer hours. In just the past two years Main Street Dodge City has been able to aide in the completion of major façade renovation projects, recruit new businesses to the downtown district and create several events that have helped bring new life back into the downtown.

“We are very excited to receive this accreditation from the National Trust MainStreet Center and feel it is a great honor and reward for all our downtownsupporters, businesses, property owners, and volunteers, as well the entire Dodge City community, who have worked so hard to get where we are today,” said Main Street Director Chelsey Dawson. “Receiving this accreditation just helps us confirm the fact that we are headed in the right direction to successfully revitalizing our historic downtown district.”

Main Street Dodge City is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the heritage of the downtown area in order to maintain the vibrant heart of the community. The organization strives to unite both the private and public sector by coordinating different activities that enhance and bring life to downtown, as well as stimulate pride in the area by utilizing the Main Street Four-Point Approach® of design, organization, promotion and economic restructuring.

Established by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1980, the National Main Street Center helps communities of all sizes revitalize their older and historic commercial districts. Working in more than 2,200 downtowns and urban neighborhoods over the last 32 years, the Main Street program has leveraged more than $55.7 billion in new public and private investment. Participating communities have created 473,535 net new jobs and 109,693 net new businesses, and rehabilitated more than 236,418 buildings, leveraging an average of $18 in new investment for every dollar spent on their Main Street district revitalization efforts.